Impact assessment of climate change on animal husbandry in north-eastern hill region: gender perspective study of Meghalaya

The impact of climate change on livestock is a matter of serious concern as majority of livestock in India are in the hands of the resource poor. The impact of variations and rise in temperature on Indian livestock greatly affects its functions and milk production. Unprecedented drought like situations adversely affected the livestock based livelihood of whole North eastern hill region of India. In this background the present study was conducted in South and West Garo Hills of Meghalaya to assess the impact of climate change on livelihood of animal husbandry. In conclusion, Extreme. Himate variability (ECV) affects both the gender but with different consequences according to their roles and responsibilities. Both men and women were of same opinion that there is a change in weather in the last 20 years but the response slightly differs between men and women. Around 25 to 100% decrease of big and small animal owned by households was reported by both the gender. Overall more than 80% of households reported diseases and mortality in livestock due to drought. The role of wives increases in decision making on selling of livestock during stress period. The time spent on fodder collection also increased during stress period comparative to normal period due to less access of fodder. New livestock breeds, livestock management and land management techniques were the mitigating strategies. Further, study suggest to initiate the new livestock management techniques and high yielding breeds of small and big animal to uplift the livelihood of the people of the study area.